Data storage is a fundamental function of virtually all computing systems. Today, there are wide variety of data storage devices and technologies available. Typically, however, all data storage involves the use of a data storage device or drive, such as a hard disk drive, solid-state drive, etc. The known types of drives store and retrieve information at the block level and are interfaced using some form of block-level access, such as SCSI, IDE/ATA, SAS, SATA, etc. Drives may often be directly attached to a client or host computing device with a cable, and thus, are typically referred to as a direct attached storage or “DAS.” To further extend the availability of storage, one or more drives may be accessed over a network, such as, using iSCSI, network attached storage (“NAS”) or storage area networks (“SAN”).
Information, however, is usually organized based on a file system. File systems, such as network file system (“NFS”), common Internet file system (“CIFS”), server message block (“SMB”), etc., are well known file systems that employ network-level file-system commands to provide for shared access to files, etc. over a network, e.g., such as an Internet Protocol (“IP”) based network. Unfortunately, network-level file-system commands are not natively processed by storage drives.
Instead, the storage drives must be coupled with another device or computing resource that executes and translates the network-level file system commands into block-level commands. DAS drives rely on the operating system and application-level software running on their corresponding host, such as a personal computer, a server, etc. NAS devices comprise a controller that executes an operating system, such as LINUX or Windows, which supports running an application that can process network-level file-system commands. iSCSI and SAN storage systems rely on application servers to handle the file-system commands. For example, the file-sharing software, SAMBA, is a well-known application that can receive file-system commands and interface with storage drives. However, this software runs in user space and uses device drivers and other services provided by the operating system running on the storage device. Unfortunately, user space software drivers can be unstable and/or suffer from poor performance. This performance disadvantage is especially pronounced on embedded computing devices and storage devices. Therefore, it would be desirable to provide methods and systems that improve the performance of computing devices, especially storage systems.